Happy Canada Day. This morning I volunteered at the HBC run for Canada, celebrating Canada's birthday and raising funds for the Canadian Olympic teams quest in Beijing. I passed out water as many hundreds of athletes ran by, including Olympic gold medalist Simon Whitfield, Victoria friends, Derek, Sean, and Sam, and Rebecca who put in a great race and nearly cracked the 46min mark. Very nice t-shirts for racers and volunteers.
"The hay is in the barn" as they say back home. I'm headed to the Pacific Northwest for my first chance to qualify for the 2008 Ironman World Championship 70.3 in Clearwater. I've logged thousands of miles on the bike, on the run, and in the pool, and it's time to put that preparation to the test.
I will be heading to Victoria for a visit with Rebecca's family and some final workouts with the coaches at LifeSport. From there we will drive through Vancouver to Lake Stevens, WA and get ready to race. There are going to be a lot of familiar faces at Lake Stevens, Amy, Michelle, Derek, and Sean are all racing, so it's practically like a home away from home.
I'm feeling fast and well prepared. I can't wait to leave it all out on the course next Sunday!
The Singing Revolution tells the amazing story of how the small European nation of Estonia maintained its national identity through decades of occupation, and how its people never gave up on their dream of independence. Under oppressive Soviet rule, it was through a rich culture of national folk songs that Estonians united, and with patience, non-violent protest, and co-operation, conquered the Soviet Union and regained their freedom without bloodshed.
My grandparents escaped from Estonia at the onset of Soviet occupation. I recently had the privilege of reading my grandfather's memoirs about his childhood in a free Estonia, the events leading up to Estonia's occupation, his perilous journey to freedom, and finally building a new life with my grandmother and their young family in Canada. I know it would make him happy to see that this film has been released on a large scale spreading Estonia's story to the rest of the world.
This film is opening in more and more theaters around the country and around the world. Visit The Singing Revolution Website to find out when and where it's playing near you. The Atlanta opening was on Friday and it is only playing until this Thursday. Screenings are limited, so you'll have to act fast if you want to experience this inspirational piece of history.
Jay Prashun reviews the 2009 Zoot footwear line. Link to article on Slowtwitch
New York Times interview with Christian Vande Velde:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/fashion/19fitness.html?_r=1&th&emc=th&oref=slogin
And Slipstream-Chipotle signs new title sponsor to become Garmin-Chipotle
http://sports.espn.go.com/oly/cycling/news/story?id=3451355
If there's an article in The Economist about swimsuits, it must be a big deal: Economist Swimsuit Article
Teamed
up with Matt and Amy for the Cartersville 65 again on Sunday. It was another
hot one, although not quite as oppressive as the one hundred degree heat of
last weekend. We held a strong pace on the bike this week and I averaged a
solid 22 MPH with an average HR of 148 for the ride. Heading out on my 30min
brick run, my HR was climbing a little high. I guess the good news is that I
hit the target HR for the run right on the money, the not-so-good part was that
my pace was a little slower than it has been in some previous weeks.
I started out well concentrating on quick cadence and good form, but noticed that my HR was quite a bit higher that it has been off the bike recently. My first three miles were 6:20, 6:30, 6:40, then the bottom fell out on it a little toward the end of the 4th mile and my pace dropped to about 7:10 and my HR stayed up around 170. Heart rate was basically flat at 170 for the whole run, but I must have been getting a little dehydrated toward the end, so when the pace dropped off and the heart rate stayed up, I just ran the last few minutes in easy.
I've been doing some analysis of my run training over the last couple of months, and I think I've made the mistake of spending a lot of time just above the endurance zone, feeling like I'm getting in great workouts, but not realizing the full benefit of long runs and developing my aerobic energy system. I took a look back at some of the data from about 8 weeks of long runs and brick runs.
I've been logging a lot of miles at the top of zone 2/bottom of zone 3 running at about 6:30 - 6:40 pace. Based on several sources that I have recently referenced I believe that I should be spending a lot more time running at the bottom end of zone 2 or the top end of zone 1 with a heart rate much closer to 150 BPM, and at a pace closer to 7min per mile.
I think that pushing the pace and HR on the longer runs has muddied the distinction between workouts where I am trying to achieve a specific heart rate at a higher intensity for a set of intervals, and the workouts where I am trying to develop aerobic endurance over a longer duration. I think that lowering the intensity of my longer runs will save some unnecessary muscle fatigue while allowing me to execute the higher intensity workouts more precisely. Hopefully this will have a favorable impact on my threshold pace and heart rate and lead to faster racing.
